Former president Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign is asking supporters whether they think he should participate in the first Republican primary debate – in a not-so-subtle way.
On his campaign site, it provides a poll: “Should President Trump show up to the GOP debate?” The clickable choices are: “Yes” or “No – let all of the many other candidates attack each other while President Trump unites the rest of our party to focus on the important battle of beating Biden.”
The first GOP debate is scheduled for 23 August, and will be shown by Fox News. Network executives reportedly tried to press the former president into participating in the event during a private dinner.
Mr Trump allegedly told the Fox News executives that he had not yet made a decision and would remain open-minded. Publicly, however, the 2024 Republican frontrunner has signalled that he would not attend. Last month, on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, he called it “not fair,” explaining, “Why would you let someone that’s [polling] at zero, or one, or two, or three, you know, be popping you with questions.”
Last week on Truth Social, he even wrote, “Let them debate so I can see who I MIGHT consider for Vice President!”
The Trump campaign also gave context to the poll, writing, “President Trump is polling his top supporters on whether he should debate or whether he should instead focus all of his resources and time on firing Crooked Joe, who is trying to JAIL him for life as an innocent man.”
The former president is leading the polls, despite three indictments against him – with one federal indictment as recent as last week. On top of this, another potential indictment in Georgia looms, concerning alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state, as the Fulton County DA has said charging decisions will be made in August.
As of 3 August, according to FiveThirtyEight, Mr Trump’s polling average is 53.3 per cent — quite a lead over the next highest polling GOP contender, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is polling at just 14.3 per cent.
In addition to Mr Trump and Mr DeSantis, the crowded GOP field includes former Vice President Mike Pence, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former Texas Congressman Will Hurd.
